Piezoelectric Crystals: California Taps on Unusual Power Source From Heavy Traffic

A Los Angeles Times poll conducted early this year revealed that heavy traffic is one of the biggest concerns of Southern California, even exceeding the ranks of personal safety and housing costs.

Now, according to a report published in Phys.org, the California Energy Commission is investing $2 million to study whether piezoelectric crystals -- crystals that create an electric current when compressed -- can be used to produce electricity from the mechanical energy created by vehicles driving on roads.

Aside from energy from fossil fuels, a car also produces vibrational energy. This, according to some scientists can be used to produce environmental, renewable energy.

Building on this, California lawmaker Mike Gatto proposed in 2011 Assembly Bill 306 to develop this kind of technology for Californian roads.

If implemented, the Piezoelectric generation system would include implanting small, round piezoelectric transducers beneath the pavement of roadways to capture energy produced by vibrations that vehicles generate as they move across surfaces. The energy could power the road sides and if harnessed well, can be fed directly into the power grid.

"You would embed them about 10 inches down," Gatto told Pasadena Star News. "If you've ever stood in a parking garage at a mall you can feel all of that vibration. Well, these transducers would gather that energy and it would be collected at a central source."

The bill was vetoed because of the lack of funding. It was only this year when the California Energy Commission finally agreed to sponsor the project.

According to Associated Press, the commission is still looking for a university or a company to conduct a field test on whether the crystals could really produce electricity if installed under asphalt given that the device will be experiencing some extreme wear and tear conditions. Aside from that, they also want to know if the project is cost-efficient as it might be too costly to be implemented.